Thursday, May 5, 2016

Space


Did you know that roughly 60% of the human body is water?

Obviously this depends on many things mainly pertaining to lean tissue versus fatty tissue since fat contains less water. So things like fitness, weight, age and gender can all effect the percentage of water making up your body.  But roughly speaking we are all around 60% water.


So what then, is water?

Water makes up 60% of our body, 80% of our blood and 70% of the Earth's surface.  Water is also unique in the way it behaves, expanding as it freezes so that ice can float.  Which, when you think about the consequences of ice not floating is certainly some form of divine intelligence.

The miraculous combination of the nature of the earths atmosphere, it's distance from the sun and therefore it's temperate conditions allows broad oceans of water to be maintained on earth.  Without this peculiar set of circumstances water and therefore life could not exist on our planet.

At a molecular level water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms dancing around one another, bonded only by the positive charge between them.

Within what does that positive charge exist?  Space.

At an atomic level electrons orbit protons and neutrons like a mini solar system.

Within what do they orbit?  Space.

Between atoms is vibrational energy.  Or what we could also call space.  This space is often greater than the size of the atoms themselves.

Space.  But not empty space.  Not desolate nothing.  Vibrant, resonant, energetic space.

Beyond and between the Earth, our solar system, the known universe and all possible universes is vast, unending space.

Space within and between quarks, atoms and molecules, within water, our body, our environment, between the planets, the solar system, the universe.

The same expansive, dynamic space that allows and contains all form, matter and experience also resides within all form matter and experience.

We are not so different from that which surrounds us.  Not so separate from our environment.

It's easy in this human form to allow our minds to trick us into thinking our lives, that which we do, say and encounter is the centre of the universe.  But the truth is that our entire solar system is not even the centre of our galaxy, let alone the universe.  On that scale our evanescent lives are not only insignificant but completely inconsequential.

We are nothing more than we imagined ourselves as children, the ants of a giants playground.

This quote stayed with me from Russell Brand's mutinous book Revolution:

“An astronomer once explained to me that the galaxy we live in, the Milky Way, is vast, too vast to be understood without metaphor, so he gave me one. He said if you picture the Milky Way as being the size of mainland Europe, our solar system—that’s Mars, Venus, Saturn, us here on Earth (you remember from school)—in a Milky Way the size of Europe our solar system would fit inside a single teacup somewhere in Belgium. He paused for my amazement, which I duly offered. But really what can you say? “Ooh, a teacup.” “Blimey, Belgium.” “Cor, it makes you think, doesn’t it?” Then he added, clearly sensing I was at a bit of a loss for words, having just been reduced to a dot on a speck in a teacup in a continent: “Russell, there are 400 million KNOWN galaxies in our universe.” 

This fleeting human existence with all it's sorrow and joy, creation and devastation is merely a dream from which we will one day awaken, becoming once again that which we were, are and always will be.  Space.

These thoughts have a two-fold effect on me.  On one hand they liberate.  Knowing that my negligible human existence is, in the scheme of the vastness of the universe, not only not paramount but so minuscule as to be meaningless allows me to detach from the burdens that can come to weigh me down.  What is it that is not working in this moment in my life?  How much does it really matter?   In the context of my place in the universe, naught.  That's how much.  My mind made difficulties are literally nothing in the scheme of things.

If my existence is reduced to a mere particle of a tea leaf in a teacup on a table in Belgium, then the fact that I'm unhappy about something is so transitory as to be meaningless.

The scale of it all allows me to disengage completely.

On the other hand this does not nor can it afford to make me nihilistic, because while essentially my human existence is ephemeral I am still part of the whole, still connected to all form from the dew drop on the leaf on the plant in my garden in spring to the 400 million known galaxies in our universe and everything in between.  I am neither more nor less important than all the parts that make up the whole.

Further to this I am connected to the whole.  Like the butterfly that beats it's wings in Japan and causes a hurricane in New York, or like me eating chocolate on my couch in the suburbs and having an impact on the forests of Ghana.

Despite our human predisposition to individualism and the notion of myself as distinct and separate from that which surrounds me, this is not really true.  It's just a convenience of perception that helps us all to function in the world the way we currently understand it.

At a deeper level we are all connected to all beings, to all form, to all matter and to all space.

60% of my body is water.  The atoms that make up that water are surrounded by space.  The universe exists within and contains limitless amounts of space.  The same space that is within lies without.  I reside within the universe and the universe resides within me.

Therefore, far from being autonomous or independent that which I think say and do does matter, does have an impact on the whole.  It may appear virtually imperceptible, like a leaf falling in the forest.  But just as that fallen leaf decomposes and returns to the soil from which other plants will sprout my path through life contributes to the whole.  I am at once supremely inessential and an abundantly valuable contributor.  And unlike most matter or non-human creatures I have a choice in whether that contribution is positive or negative.

Have you heard of Masaru Emoto and his water crystal experiments?  Emoto took samples of water from various locations, froze it and viewed it under a microscope to find crystals similar to snowflakes.  He went on to conjecture that positive energies and vibrations could heighten the beauty of these crystals and therefore the purity of the water.  He claimed to alter the molecular structure of water by blessing it with various prayers, giving it positive or negative affirmations, exposing it to scenes of beauty or destruction and playing it various types of music.  Positive energy yielded gloriously beautiful crystals while negative energy resulted in asymmetric or "ugly" crystals.  The results are striking:

Fujiwara dam water before offering of Buddhist prayer.
Fujiwara dam water after offering of Buddhist prayer.

Stunning, no?  And makes you ponder the impact of human thought as a precursor to human action and our impact on our environment at a molecular level.  And let's not forget where we started: 60% of our body is water.  What sort of impact then can our thoughts and actions have on not only our wider environment but our own bodies and lives.  I kinda love it.

Of course Emoto's science is dubious enough to have been dubbed as fanciful as Alice in Wonderland, much like my descriptions of molecules, atoms and the universe at the start of this post.  Nevertheless there's no denying that Alice in Wonderland is a ripping yarn that begs us to question the voracity of the reality we have been dealt.

I'm not about science.  I'm a humanities chick.  I think science is of the head and the head is overrated.   Love on the other hand is all about the heart and the heart is deeply, deeply under valued.  And I think that's what gets us into most of our great messes.

For the most part we know in our hearts what we need to do, and it's when our head gets involved that it all turns to shit.  In that case it doesn't matter if Emoto's science is dodgy and if it makes no sense that I believe I contain the vastness of the universe within me.  Because it's about heart and compassion and kindness and pretty crystals.  I am important and also I matter not a jot.  What I do has an impact but that impact is so small as to be imperceptible.  My life is of consequence and matters to the world around me, but my life is also so fleeting as to be forgotten within the blink of a cosmic eye.

So I'll do my best to lead with my heart, but if it doesn't work out, well then I guess it's no big deal.

What do you think about your connection to the world around you?

Top Image Licensed Under Creative Commons via Morguefile
Crystal Images via Masaru Emoto

8 comments:

  1. Wow Kate you have tied all of that together so well! This little ant in the playground is a big believer in following her heart too. I think in time we will understand and
    Be able to explain more about how our thoughts and emotions affect our well being on a cellular level, if not that's ok too.

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  2. You've really got me thinking here Kate. It ties in quite a bit with 'The Secret' and thoughts being things, manifestation of dreams etc. I love the snowflake image of 'positive' or 'happy' water under the microscope. It's nothing and it's everything all at once.

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    1. I agree Rebecca - and I am so glad to have gotten you thinking, that is a wonderful compliment, thank-you. x

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  3. So good to read this piece! I love the idea that we are a microcosm of a macrcosm. A poignant reminder of our true nature. Thanks.

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    1. Thank-you so much Romana! It's so easy in this crazy world to forget to connect with our true nature, which is vast and still and ever present, just waiting for us to return. x

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  4. Things that make you go 'hmmmm'.....
    Loved this piece Kate. I once watched a film made with microscopic cameras (called Microcosm? Can't remember) and if affected me profoundly, for all of the reasons you discuss. Within the film is a scene of snails mating and it moved me to tears. How magnificently broad our hearts are, in the face of such scales. The minute and the massive. Significant and insignificant. Still we pulse and breathe and hope and keen, all of us on our tiny blue planet, feeling things big enough to fill all of space. Extraordinary.

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    1. Yes! Yes! What a beautiful comment Rachel. I remember that film too. Astonishing. xx

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